Adults are faced with making many important decisions which have implications for the quality of their life and for society at large. Geropsychologists have, for some time, promulgated the notion that the elderly are cautious in decision-making. However, the results of the initial research examining adult age differences, using a hypothetical, semi-projective instrument which measured risk-taking judgments, were equivocal. In recent research, using behavioral, as opposed to judgmental, indices of risk-taking, clear-cut adult age differences have been found. No research, to date, has been conducted to determine what factors contribute to their cautiousness when it occurs nor has much effort been directed toward modifying such cautiousness in the elderly. A theoretical hypothesis is put forth that age differences in cautiousness are attributable, at least partially, to fear of failure and inability to organize information. The proposed research focuses on determining (a) are there age differences in the factors which adults consider in decision-making situations? (b) are there age differences in the manner in which adults use information to arrive at a decision? (c) whether the factor structure of risk-taking is invariant across adult age? (d) how can the cautiousness of the elderly be modified? Diverse methodologies will be utilized to collect data relevant to these questions including (a) laboratory experimentation; (b) interviews; and (c) questionnaires. Cross-sectional data analysis will incorporate factor analysis and univariate and multivariate analysis of variance models.